Now, it seems to be taking a toll on the Hurricanes’ recruiting class, too.

In the 48 hours after Miami’s 20-12 loss to Duke at Hard Rock Stadium, the Hurricanes lost verbal commitments from two players, three-star safety Cornelius Nunn out of Miami Palmetto and three-star running back Marcus Crowley out of Jacksonville Trinity Christian Academy.

With the Hurricanes struggling and football’s early signing period set to run from Dec. 19 to 21, the fear from many Miami fans is that this year’s class — which is ranked 22nd in the nation by recruiting website 247Sports.com — will continue to absorb significant hits.

On Tuesday, Richt said the Hurricanes are doing their best to stay in touch with their recruits, but he understands rival schools may try to take advantage of Miami’s woes in an effort to poach some of the Hurricanes committed players.

He’s hoping those efforts won’t work.

“Certainly when you’re struggling and people [have] got some fuel to pour on what they consider a fire, they can get in a kid’s head,” Richt said. “We’ve got to do a good job of just staying in contact with them and letting them know everything is going to be OK. That’s certainly something that’s got to [be] managed and we’re staying on top of it.”

At this point, the Hurricanes have verbal commitments from 17 players, including eight players from South Florida, where criticism of Richt and the Hurricanes is more pronounced from fans on social media and sports talk radio.

Still, Hurricanes defensive coordinator Manny Diaz said on Tuesday he’s confident Miami will be able to keep most of its recruiting class intact, while adding some key players in the coming weeks.

Miami has commitments from four offensive players, 12 defensive players and running back Damarius Good of Lake Brantley, who projects as a cornerback at the next level.

As he works to keep all of those defensive players in the fold, Diaz can point to the fact Miami’s defense — despite the Hurricanes’ three-game losing streak — is still rated the No. 2 defense in the country and is among national leaders in several other categories including tackles for loss, passing defense and third-down conversion percentage.

Running back Travis Homer did not practice Tuesday, and was instead, seen on a conditioning bike with...

“I think certainly with the guys I know we’re recruiting right now on defense, I think they can see you can play for an elite defense here,” Diaz said. “Everybody knows how young we are on offense. We’ve got some recruits that we really think that can make some immediate headway on that side of the ball. And we all know that success is not linear. We wish it was. We wish you could take one step and the step would always be obvious. But, in the business world or in athletics or sports you don’t always take one obvious step every year. Sometimes that’s hard to see. But I think the relationships we’ve formed with the guys we are recruiting ultimately will tell at the end.”

Whether the Hurricanes can add to their offensive haul, though, is a question, particularly given their current issues on that side of the ball.

Miami — which has scored a combined 39 points in its losses to Virginia, Boston College and Duke — has not been able to secure a quarterback commitment yet. Richt said Tuesday the team remains on the lookout for one and according to 247sports, the school has reached out to Clemson graduate transfer Kelly Bryant.

On the offensive line, where the Hurricanes have struggled this year and could use help, Miami has commitments from just two players — four-star offensive tackle Michael Tarquin of North Marion High and three-star offensive guard Kingsley Eguakun of Jacksonville Sandalwood.

Both prospects have reportedly explored other options in recent months, with Tarquin making an unofficial visit to Florida this past weekend according to 247Sports and Eguakun visiting Auburn in September.

There was, after Saturday’s 20-12 loss to Duke, a lot of talk about pride, about playing to finish strong. And while...

Still despite some of the negativity surrounding the program right now, the current Hurricanes say they believe in their coaches and in the experiences they are having in Coral Gables. And they’re willing to welcome the players who make the commitment to helping Miami become the program it wants to be.

“At the end of the day, it’s their own choice. They have to deal with their families and stuff like that, but man, Miami’s a great program. Miami changed my life in many ways that I’m always going to be thankful for,” said defensive tackle Gerald Willis, who signed with Florida out of high school and transferred to Miami in 2015. “Miami is ‘The U.’ If you want to be great, come to ‘The U.’ Things [haven’t] gone the way we wanted to this year, but, things can change around in a year. It’s a great place. If you want to come, come. If you don’t, don’t. If you want to be great and be coached by the best coaches, come.”

Added cornerback Michael Jackson, “What people fail to realize is you come to Miami, cool, fine. You have to be built different. If you’re mad that we took a couple of losses then that lets me know that you’re trying to ride the wave of other teams.

“When we [were] winning, everybody wanted to be a part of us. Now that we’re losing, don’t nobody want to be around. People want to decommit. To be honest, it’s just like you really weren’t built for that, because you can decommit to us and go to another team and [what if] they’ll be losing? Then what are you going to do? You going to transfer once a team loses two, three games? It [doesn’t] work like that.”